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In celebration of this weekend’s statewide Maple Open House, I was planning to offer a recipe for maple baked beans, a sugarhouse classic that is perfect for fueling long days and nights of boiling.

I bought a bag of delightfully freckled Jacob’s Cattle beans from Hank Bissell’s Lewis Creek Farm at last Saturday’s winter farmers market and defrosted a smoked ham hock from the half of a whey-fed pig I picked up recently at the Mad River Food Hub (more on that in a future column).

No need to buy syrup, as I always have large quantities of Vermont maple syrup on hand for everything from maple-sweetened marinades and sauces, to baked goods, to cocktails — not to mention for my sons to pour lavishly (one might say wastefully) over pancakes and waffles.

But, just in case you hadn’t noticed, it has not exactly been baked bean weather; it’s been more like bake-on-the-beach weather.

Last week’s unseasonable heat wave had a generally dampening effect on sugaring, with many sugarmakers reporting the shortest season they’ve ever seen, although they are plugging on with the Open House this weekend when temperatures should be back down a bit (go to http://vermontmaple.org for more information).

Two weeks ago when there was still some snow on the ground, I was hosting a good friend on the way back to her native England after having lived in New Zealand for seven years. Neither country produces maple, so my highlights-of-Vermont tour plan included, of course, how our most famous product is made.

Sugaring was not going gangbusters back then either, but we were able to take a snowy stroll through the woods to see old-fashioned sap buckets at Shelburne Farms and the following day a young helper at Nebraska Knoll Sugarhouse in Stowe showed us around their 9,000-tap operation. Even though they weren’t boiling that afternoon, the sap was running and my friend Helen got to taste sap and see their reverse osmosis system and wood-fired arch.

On Helen’s last morning, we stirred up a quick batch of my maple granola for her to take back to England along with the small jugs of syrup she had bought, a sweet taste of Vermont I hope we will continue to produce for generations to come.

Granola is so easy to make and so popular, I often wonder why more people don’t make their own. I thought I had perfected my recipe, but was reminded that there’s always something new to learn when the detail-oriented team at Cook’s Illustrated magazine recently taught me the trick of compacting the unbaked mixture for an even chunkier result. The real key to chunks, though, is to let the baked granola cool completely before you remove it from the pan. (And don’t mistakenly add the dried fruit before baking or you risk breaking your teeth on the dried-out nuggets that will result.)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 15 x 10-inch rimmed cookie sheet or shallow roasting pan with a nonstick baking mat or parchment paper. In a small bowl, stir together oil, syrup, honey, cinnamon and salt. (Using the same measuring cup for the oil first effectively greases it for easier measuring and removal of the syrup and honey.)

2. In a large bowl, mix together oats, pumpkin seeds and almonds. Pour oil-sweetener mixture over oats mixture and stir until evenly coated. Spread granola evenly and compactly in the prepared pan and press mixture down with damp hands. Bake for 15-20 minutes until deep golden-brown.

3. Reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees and leave oven door ajar to bring temperature down. Bake for another 8-10 minutes until granola is toasty brown, but watch carefully to make sure it doesn’t burn.

4. Set pan on a wire cooling rack, and do not touch granola until it has completely cooled. Use a spatula or hands to break granola into desired-size chunks and mix in the dried cranberries. Store in an airtight container.

Note: You can double the recipe and make two pans at once using the two center racks in your oven. Switch pans from top to bottom halfway through higher temperature baking time and add a few minutes to both baking phases. If you don’t go through granola as fast as we do in my house, it will keep well in a tightly sealed bag or container in the freezer.